This invention relates generally to fluid pumps, and in particular to a fluid pump for a small fluidic system such as a biological assaying system.
The ability to pump and manipulate small volume of fluids at a relatively high flow is an integral part of almost any microfluidic device. Examples of microfluidic devices are those intended for use in sample preparation, synthesis, and screening, and are capable of sample pre-contretation, amplification, hybridization and separation. Microfluidic devices of these types are being designed and fabricated to manipulate fluids in ultra small volumes, i.e. tens of microliters or less. In many applications, such as biological sample analysis, desirable attributes for the microflluidic device, and therefore the fluid pump, are inexpensiveness, small size, sufficient capacity, and low power requirements. Inexpensiveness is desirable for its marketing advantage and so that the microfluidic device is economically disposable. Small size is desirable for compatibility with the rest of the microfluidic system and also for efficiency of bench space, particularly when many disposable microfluidic devices are operated simultaneously. Sufficient capacity is meant to combine the features of sufficient pressure and flow volume to operate a microfluidic device, or an adequate portion of a microfluidic device. Low power is desirable for portability and also to avoid undesirable heating of the fluid being tested. Conventional types of small fluid pumps are not known with all of these features. For example, an air pump that is activated by heating the air requires a relatively large amount of heat and can be too large.